Posts Tagged ‘Ed Lain. Broomall’

Restrepo
I actually saw this months ago, but thought it should be mentioned since the film’s director, Tim Hetherington, was killed in Libya yesterday along with Getty photographer Chris Hondros. The documentary, which Hetherington co-directed with Sebastian Junger, follows the Second Platoon in the Korengal Valley, one of the deadliest valleys in Afghanistan, for a year (2007). It also chronicles one of the most dangerous missions in Afghanistan, Operation Rock Avalanche, and the numerous civilian and military casualties that resulted, as well as the emotionally devastating effects of the battle. Watch this and you’ll feel like you just came home from a 90 minute deployment.

Marwencol
Another documentary but another great story. Mark Hogancamp is an artist, illustrator and and alcoholic. One night, after exchanging some words with a few other drunks inside a bar, Mark is ambushed by five attackers and beaten to within inches of his life. His beating so severe that he ends up in a coma for 8 days and in the hospital for 40 days. He has to re-learn to walk, talk and think. He’s no longer able to draw. During his recovery process, Mark builds an incredible 1/6 scale town in his backyard and populates it with incredibly detailed GI Joe figures..each with its own “backstory”. He builds a bar where they can drink, a church where they can meet , a little general store.